Oakland's Capital Improvement Program (CIP)

This year, we are integrating the public input process for the capital budget with the new Infrastructure and Capital Facilities Element of the Oakland General Plan. 

For the upcoming Capital Budget cycle, we will pivot from soliciting new capital project ideas to delivering our existing list of more than 100 in-progress projects. Since some of these projects are only partially funded by City dollars, we are focused on identifying additional funding (for example, from bonds or grants) to allow us to complete them. Over the last three budget cycles, our public engagement process yielded an additional 284 capital project ideas for which no funding is currently available. This existing list of unfunded projects would require more than two billion dollars to implement.

Rather than adding to this list, we are shifting our focus to project delivery. In the short-term, this means moving our in-progress and “shovel ready” projects forward expeditiously. Going forward, it means aligning our work more closely with long term capital planning processes like the City of Oakland General Plan Update.

This is the first time that the General Plan will have an Infrastructure and Capital Facilities Element (or topic), which will support and guide capital planning over a twenty-year time horizon. This is a well-timed opportunity for our community to build on participation in past CIP cycles by contributing their voices and needs to this longer-range approach to capital planning.

We encourage community members to engage with the General Plan Update process this fall by:

• Taking this survey (open until October 20, 2024) to share your thoughts and ideas about Oakland's future
• Visiting the General Plan Update webpage
• Signing up for General Plan email updates

The City of Oakland’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) guides the City’s long-term, strategic decisions regarding the construction, repair and replacement of the City’s assets including libraries, public safety facilities, sewers, recreation centers and parks. Transportation and street improvements are also part of the City’s CIP. The City develops a new CIP Budget every two years for inclusion in the overall City Budget, and the assets identified for repair, replacement or purchase in a budget cycle become CIP Projects.

There is also an interactive map of current projects available on this webpage. We will update the map monthly with contact information for each project or program. The map includes filters like project type and council district that community members can use when searching for projects. The “CIP Projects Interactive Map” is linked at the top of this page.

Capital projects included in the CIP are any large-scale, long-term investment that builds, replaces, or improves an asset (e.g. buildings, roads, parks, sewer, drainage lines, etc.). According to the CIP, capital projects should have a design life of at least ten years and a minimum cost of approximately $100,000.

Before capital projects become official CIP projects, they undergo a prioritization process, where City staff identify assets for repair, replacement, or purchase in the next budget cycle. When the City Council adopts the biennial budget, projects become a part of the two-year CIP. Some of these capital projects are standalone project ideas, while others are part of existing CIP programs that contain specific planning processes.

It's important to highlight that capital projects differ from maintenance projects, which are not within the CIP. Maintenance projects are typically smaller in scale/cost and refer to more urgent short-term repairs to ensure vital city assets remain operational. For urgent maintenance requests (e.g., potholes, graffiti removal, etc.), you can navigate to the City's Oak 311 service, which handles these more routine fixes. Please be advised that Oak 311 receives hundreds of requests and may not be able to respond to your concern immediately.

In 2018, the Oakland City Council adopted a new, inclusive forum for Oakland community members to incorporate their feedback and introduce new project ideas to be considered for the CIP selection process.

Along with it came a new CIP Prioritization Model that would weigh the urgency and projected impact of applicant projects to ensure effective allocation of City dollars. The CIP prioritization process approved by the Oakland City Council scores projects on the factors listed above in the figure.

City staff use the CIP prioritization process to score projects and determine their feasibility given the City's financial and operational constraints within the upcoming two-year budget. Staff present CIP recommendations to the City Council for approval each biennial budget cycle. 

It is important to note that not all projects included in the CIP will receive funding in the two year funding cycle. Being included in the CIP is a necessary first step that allows City staff to seek funding for a capital project. Some or all of the funding required to complete a capital project may be included in the two year budget—but more often than not, the City will have to seek additional funding from sources like State grants or public bonds. In either case, these funds are often dedicated to a specific purpose (for example paving roads) and the City may not have the ability to use them for a different purpose (for example renovating a recreation center). However, even when there is not an identified funding source for your capital project, there is still value in submitting your request, because it ensures your project will be in line to be considered for funding when it does become available.

The City of Oakland has more demand for capital projects than it has funds to pay for them, which is why the CIP must be intentional about how to score and prioritize potential project ideas generated internally and from public submissions. Community engagement continues to be critical for uplifting the community's real needs—as articulated by community members themselves—to determine priority capital investments. Using the City's prioritization factors (pictured above), the City assigns each project an overall score based on the criteria listed.

City staff present their recommendations to the City Council as part of the budget development process. Once the recommendations are provided to Council, Council holds public meetings to deliberate and adopt a final budget. This is another opportunity for community members to be involved in the process. The dates and times for those meetings are variable each cycle; however, the City Council must adopt its Budget and CIP by June 30 before the beginning of the fiscal year.

The CIP Budget represents a significant investment in our community. It reflects the overall priorities of the City and has an enormous impact on its health and vibrancy. CIP dollars can bring about entirely new community-envisioned changes and speed up the completion of existing projects that may face challenges because of funding shortages.